


Jagged Puzzle Pieces

by MidnightStorm6593



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:25:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6471715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightStorm6593/pseuds/MidnightStorm6593
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of Kastle one-shots.</p><p>1 - In which Karen tries to save a cat from a tree and Frank gets roped into helping her.<br/>2 - In which late night coffee does not go well for Frank and Karen (but really, who's surprised by that?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It had been yet another late at _The Bulletin,_ but she couldn’t ignore the pitiful cries as she walks back to her apartment.

It was a tiny mewling noise, one that she’s surprised she could even hair over the noise of the city. But she does and when she looks up, she sees a tiny kitten perched on the tallest branch of a tree that the public works department has planted in an attempt to beautify things.

“How did you get up there?” Karen asks.

The kitten answers her with some more sad mewling.

She stands there for a few moments, debating how she’s gonna get the poor little thing out of the tree. She may have been tall, but she was not tall enough to just reach up and pluck it right out of there. Climbing didn’t seem like a good option, either, since it wasn’t exactly a sturdy tree. It’s nothing like the ginormous trees with thick branches that kids would climb on and hang out in. Instead, it was thin and the branches were flimsy.

Yet, Karen can’t see any other way.

“Okay,” she mutters to herself, setting her purse down next to the base of the tree and slipping her heels off. She knows anyone could just come by and snatch her purse with her .308 in it and all, but she couldn’t exactly bring it up the tree with her, either (that is, if she even made it up the tree without it snapping on her).

“What the hell are you doing?”

She freezes in her tracks as she instantly recognizes that voice.

_Frank._

She spins around to face him and quickly works to regain her composure.

“Well, someone needs to get the cat out of the tree,” she tells him. Then she turns back to face the tree, reaching up to grip one of the lower branches. She doesn’t thinks she’d have to climb that far up. Just up a branch or two, then she could pluck the kitten out and hopefully make it down and not crash land thanks to a broken branch. 

“You’re just going to hurt yourself. That tree is flimsy as hell and you’re just going to scrape yourself up in that dress.”

Okay, so he had a point. She knows that. Only after everything that’s happened, she’s not so sure she wants his advice (if you could even call it that).

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she lets go of the branch and turns to face him again.

“Well what do you suggest? Someone has to get it down,” Karen snaps. “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be dead? Go away.”

He scoffs and strides over to her, side-stepping her to reach the tree. His hand reaches up to grab the branch she had just let go of.

“What’re you doing?” Karen asks him.

“What do you think? I’m getting the stupid damn cat down for you,” Frank grumbles.

“Aren’t you the one who just told me the tree is too flimsy to climb? If you think _I”m_ going to break the tree, I don’t see how you’ll do any better,” she points out. She has to restrain some laughter that bubbles up in her chest. The mental image of Frank scaling such a pathetic-looking tree, only to land on his ass when a branch broke on him was ridiculous. That alone might be worth it to watch him try. Still, though, she’s tired and she just wants to get the kitten down, then go home and sleep.

“Just give me a lift,” she finally suggests with a sigh.

He grumbles incoherently, but before she can say anything more, his hands are at her hips and he’s lifting her up as if she weighs nothing. She lets out a small gasp since she wasn’t actually expecting him to do it.

She reaches up and plucks the kitten out of the branch, cradling it to her chest. He carefully lowers her down, until her feet are touching the ground once again. 

“You don’t have these kinds of problems with dogs,” is all he says before he disappears off into the night.

She can’t help the small smile on her lips as she sees him melt into the shadows. She looks down at the kitten in her arms. The little guy is contented to hook his claws into her dress and try to climb up higher.

“Let’s go home,” she tells it, slipping her shoes back on and slinging her purse back over her shoulder.


	2. Late Night Coffee

Whenever she works late at _the Bulletin,_ he watches over her.

If he were anyone else, she would think he’s getting sloppy. But it’s Frank Castle. And if Frank Castle didn’t want her to know he’s there, then should wouldn’t.

She thinks about calling out to him a billion times, but she doesn’t. The words clog in her throat before she can manage to get them out. She has so much to say, yet at the same time she doesn’t know where to start.

During one late nighter, she gets up to grab herself a coffee, hoping to keep herself fueled for a couple more hours to wrap this article up before she heads to her apartment. Once her mug is full, she finds herself reaching for another mug.

“You might as well come and have a cup of coffee,” she calls out. “Take a break from creeping around and all that.” She places the mug down on the other side of the desk before taking a seat and burying herself back in her article.

“Thought I was dead to you,” he replies gruffly. 

She doesn’t look up the notes she’s examining as he takes a seat in the chair on the other side of her desk, but replies, “Dead people seem to have a way of coming back to haunt you in this city.”

Karen finds herself stilling for a moment, wondering if maybe that wasn’t entirely appropriate the same.

Frank Castle is a man that is haunted by every day by his dead wife and his dead children. It’s what drives his actions.

But still, what she said was the truth.

And perhaps that’s what really haunted. Her persistent need to always uncover the truth. It’s what had driven her towards Frank in the first place.

They sit there in silence for a few moments. She’s engrossed in her work, but she can feel Frank’s eyes on her, carefully watching her.

“I read your articles,” he tells her, breaking the silence.

“I figured,” she says, still not looking at him. “It hasn’t escaped my notice what happens to the criminals I’ve been working to expose.” She picks up her mug and takes a long sip of her coffee.

“You’re putting yourself in danger.”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

Karen puts her mug down and looks him dead in the eye. 

“The man this office used to belong to was strangled to death by Fisk because he was helping me to expose that bastard. I woke up covered in blood with my dead co-worker next to me because I was asking his help so that I could expose Union Allie. Wanna know that really twisted part about _that_ one? I’m actually lucky because they only framed me for his murder instead of killing me, too. I almost got the shit beaten out of me by two of Fisk’s goons because I was trying to stop him from bulldozing and elderly woman’s apartment. And that woman? Fisk sent some druggie to stab her death. Then, not to mention the laundry list of things that have happened since I’ve met you.”

Her voice is calm and even during her entire tirade, which even she found surprising.

“I’ve already accepted that the life I’ve chosen the lead, the choices I’ve decided to take have put me in the path of danger.”

_Just like he’s accepted that the choices he’s made are leading him down the darkest path._

He drains the rest of the coffee from the mug she had given him before standing up and moving to the back counter for a refill.

“That one article, the one about heroes–” His back is to her and his head is down, focusing on his actions.

The rest of his words become white noise to her when she sees a flash of red. Before she even thinks about it, she’s out of her seat and barreling into Frank at full speed.

They hit the ground with a heavy thud and glass and sparks spray as her coffee maker is annihilated.

She’s on top of Frank, almost nose-to-nose with him. They stare at each other in utter silence for a good twenty seconds before Frank lifts her off him and sets her around the ground beside him.

“Get under your desk and stay there,” he directs her, already up and halfway out the door.

“Like hell,” Karen replies, scrambling up to follow him.

Just like she had accepted her search for the truth would lead her into danger, she had accepted that allowing Frank into her life does the same.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Bringing Out the Dead](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6957997) by [MidnightStorm6593](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightStorm6593/pseuds/MidnightStorm6593)




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